Michael Palin Quotes
I've been lucky enough to stand on both poles, but the place that seemed the remotest to me was Butugychag, a former gulag in Siberia. It is completely cut off from the rest of the world.
Palin, Michael. Full Circle. BBC Books, 1997.
Stalin’s purges and suppression of potential rivals killed off mostly other communists exceeding the number of communists killed by brutal, murderous, anti-communist forces over the world.
This was a big factor that made the Red Scare so damaging.
Communists had different reactions to the atrocities committed by Stalin. Many, like Buck condemned it and remained committed to Communism. Others, were so outraged that the left the party and had no more to do with Communism. Others were in denial and did not believe it. Still others acknowledge the crimes but consider Stalin, on balance a positive force. A few concluded that what Stalin did was necessary for Communism and the Soviet Union to develop.
After the breakup of the Soviet Union, NATO expanded to include some fo the former Soviet Nations thus moving NATO territiry to the East--closer to Russia, whose leaders percieved that the expansion was hostile and dangerous for the indpendence of Russia. What made the situation more complex is that the American Secretary of State, when the Soviet Union was very powerful, had made an agreement with the Soviets that in return for Russian aquiessance of NATO being extended to East Germany, NATO would not expand further West. But after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia was quite weak and NATO expanded east despite the earleir comittment. The US and th eother NATO counties took the pozition the previous comitmnts were not binidng as they were never formally signed. The Russians then decided to take a hard line position and flaunt and use military force to which would stop the Western expansion closer to the Russian border.
Sir Michael Edward Palin KCMG CBE FRGS is an English actor, comedian, writer and television presenter. He was a member of the comedy group Monty Python. Since 1980 he has made a number of travel documentaries.
